1st Coca-Cola Bottle 1899 Biedenharn Candy Co. Straight Side Crown-Top SB&GCo.

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1st Coca-Cola Bottle 1899 Biedenharn Candy Co. Straight Side Crown-Top SB&GCo.:
$100000.00

Incredibly rare 1899 Biedenharn Coca-Cola bottle manufactured by the Streator Bottle & Glass Company. Dated with a99 on the heel, hand-blown with a applied Crown-Top. It's in good shape with no cracks or chips, only a few flea bites. Biedenharn was the first bottler of Coke in 1894, starting with used Hutchinson bottles. A few years later, he was among the first to use Crown-Top bottles. Asa Candler explicitly excluded Biedenharn's rapidly expanding territories of Mississippi and Texas in the Chattanooga lawyers' bottling contract of 1899 (shown). Soon after, he had the bottling rights to distribute Coke in Louisiana.

This is the first and earliest well-documented and dated bottle to actually have Coke in it. Even the World of Coke has a Biedenharn bottle on display, paying homage to its bottled lineage (shown). Celebrated by Coke for his Golden Anniversary in the August, 1944 issue of the Coca-Cola Bottler magazine. This is the earliest known Biedenharn bottle. Biedenharn only ordered bottles from two glass manufacturers at the time, first the Streator Bottle & Glass Co. (1881-1905) and after the turn of the century, the Root Glass Co. (1901-1932).

Streator's bottle dating system

Streator Bottle & Glass Co. (SB&GCo) was the first to date their soda bottles; this bottle dating system lasted for 89 YEARS throughout four companies (Streator, American, Owings & Owings-Illinois). This was only used on soda bottles, not beer bottles. Streator's bottling dating system was from 1894-1906 and had the years embossed on the heel of the bottle, it went 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 19 (for 1900), 1 (or blank for 1901), 2, 3, 4, 5 & rarely seen 6 for 1906. The bottle dating system continued again when they were purchased by theAmerican Bottle Co. in 1906, with the addition of -Sfor the "Streator Plant" after the year date, and went up to16-S for 1916. The dating system then continued even longer after being acquired by the Owings Bottle Co. in 1916, going up to 29-Sfor 1929. After the merger in 1929, the Owings-Illinois Glass Co. moved the date underneath and continued this dating system by Streator for decades up to 1983! This 1899 Biedenharn Crown-Top bottle predates the Biedenharn Hutch bottle by six years! All four variant Biedenharn Hutch bottles are from 1905. Found on the heel of EVERY Streator Biedenharn Hutch is a 5, which denotes 1905.No Streator Biedenharn Hutch has ever been discovered with anything else but a 5 on the heel. I've seen a lot of them and was fortunate to have had the finest example in existence. It was obtained from the man who literally wrote the book on collecting Coke bottles, Bill Porter,CokeBottle Checklist. This is also corroborated by the authority Ron Fowler of Hutchbook.com. If it were from 1894, it would have a clear94on the heel like this 1894 Wisconsin Hutch manufactured by Streator (shown). Also shown are two examples of Crown-TopBiedenharn Streator 8.25" bottles with that exact distinctive font 5 on the heel and no BCCo underneath. This further rules out heel numbers as being mold numbers, as both the Hutch and Crown-Topbottles are considerably different shapes. Shown in the pictures are this 1899 Biedenharn bottle and a 1901 Biedenharn bottle. Both are 8.25" tall, Crown-Topbottles, and have the same mold #62 underneath. Streator used mold numbers on some of their earlier bottles, along with the year dates.

Coca-Cola Hutchinson Bottles

The Root Glass Co. and the Chattanooga Glass Co. both opened their doors in 1901. The other three Biedenharn variant Hutches marked"ROOT 471" are most likely from 1905 as well, given that Root was fairly linear in their numbering. There are earlier examples of larger slug-plate Crown-Topbottles marked with a cruder company logo and lower number "RGCO 225" made by Root for Biedenharn.They also started dating soda bottles on the heel in 1908. Many of those coveted Alabama Coke Hutches were made well after by either of them, and the other variants by bottlers like DOC that are the same molds don't have dates. The Alabama Coke hutches were not proven to be Coke bottlers until 1902 and later through newspaper archives. Starting with Crawford Johnson Sr, who opened the Birmingham Bottling Company, their Hutch is marked with "ROOT 405" on the heel, which would date 1904. Most likely, they all started with used Hutches like Biedenharn, and would explain the existence of actual Coke Hutch crates from pre-existing bottlers from Nashville, Logansport, Emporia, and Roanoke. There are only two Coke Hutches that could be from 1899 or later, equally tied with this bottle, marked only with "Dixie" from the Dixie Bottling Works; those are the Chattanooga Coke block letter Hutches. The next would be the block letter Atlanta Coke Hutch or the Property Of Coke Hutch (my favorite), and they would date 1900 at the earliest. Both Chattanooga lawyers, after separating in 1900, had to take on business partners; the fact that they even used Hutches shows their lack of revenue. Valdosta was also proven to be a bottler of Coke through the newspaper archives in 1897. That Hutch is marked only with a "VBW" underneath and can not be dated. It has a newer-looking watermelon design with no slug plate line, very similar to the Brunswick Coke Hutch, which would date to 1903 or later. There are plenty of Crown-TopCoke bottles that predate those Alabama Coke Hutches by years.Los Angles (1902), Denver (1902), Jacksonville (1902), Tampa (1902), Chicago (1901), Elizabethtown (1901), Louisville (1901), Shelbyville (1901), New Orleans (1902), Kansas City (1902), Buffalo (1902), Charlotte (1902), Cincinnati (1901), Oklahoma City (1902), Shawnee (1902), Harrisburg (1902), Columbia (1902), Charleston (1902), Knoxville (1902), Nashville (1900), Dallas (1902), Houston (1902), Bristol (1902), Clifton Forge (1902), Norfolk (1901), Roanoke (1902), Beckley (1902) and Parkersburg (1902). If you search for early Coke horse and buggy delivery wagons, you will find many pictures of Crown-Topbottles shown in Hutch cases and pictured in early bottling works. Coke and Biedenharn Hutches, even the Pepsi Hutch all seem to date from 1904-07, hand-blown Crown-Top bottles were in full swing much earlier.

The Crown & Cork Seal Co.

The Crown and Cork Seal bottle cap was patented in 1892 by William Painter of Baltimore. In 1894, he had patentedthe bottle opener, and by 1899, he had a U.S. patent for his automatic Crown-Topbottling machine. By the late 1890's, most successful bottlers had moved on to the hand-blown Crown-Topbottle, like Biedenharn, shown here. Shown in theNational Bottlers Gazettefull-page advertisement from 1896. And theAmerican Brewers' Review Vol 12showing 3,840 "Crown and Seal Machines" in use nationwide as of Jan 15, 1899! It was a smash hit with bottlers of soda and beer; consequently, there was a Crown-Topbottle and equipment shortage shortly after the turn of the century. This was further complicated by the 15 month long GBBA (Glass Bottle Blowers Association) union strike (April 8, 1899 – July 1, 1900). And the invention of the first fully automatic bottle-blowing machine,patented in 1904 by Michael J. Owens.Hutches were used again to fill the void for the bottlers and glass manufacturers. The used and now outdated Hutch equipment was readily available for a new franchisee to get up and running on a shoestring budget. This explains why those were produced with such later markings like no visible slug plate, newer glass, and why you can find some Hutches leading up into the 1920's.

Biedenharn Candy Co.

Found in this blue hardcover rare family book is a 1965 interview with the youngest of the Biedenharn brothers, soon to be president of the company and the bottle washer from that first Biedenharn bottling place in Vicksburg (now a museum) A.M. Biedenharn. He recounts clearly that they sent to a major city for used Hutches to first bottle Coke back in 1894 (shown). In the last picture of newspaper clippings shown, you can see that Biedenharn was bottling Coke with a paper diamond label, and the new "blown-in" Coke script bottles weren't advertised until May 16th, 1915. The earliest mention of the Biedenharn Candy Co. is June 5th, 1894! In Biedenharn's own words, they had already switched to the Crown-Topbottle within a few years of the start of their operation in 1894 (shown). Bottles don't exaggerate, and I've now seen only a very few examples of this incredibly rare 1899 Streator Biedenharn Coke bottle shown here today. Don't miss out on a real piece of history and truly the first Coca-Cola bottle!

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, but the ONLY payment option I am accepting for this expensive bottle is cash on the glass. Thanks.